LITMIR.BIZ

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of my way.”

      She smirked. “Say please.”

      What was this, a CW show? This kind of drama just didn’t happen in real life, did it? I took the plastic top off my cup and dumped what was left of my latte down the front of her. She gasped. Actually, it was more of a roar, but I’d already shoved her aside and kept moving. I didn’t stop when I stepped out into the warm September night but made a beeline straight for my borrowed purple Bug. Nan had been so excited at the prospect of me making friends. God, she was even more naive than I was.

      I pressed the button to unlock the car and climbed in, tossing my purse onto the passenger seat. For a moment, I sat there, forehead against the steering wheel. How could I have been so stupid? Hadn’t I learned anything? God, I was so deficient. I was going to have to switch schools because I was too young to drop out. I could probably have gotten into one a town or two over. Maybe. My past would have caught up with me sooner or later, it always did, but for a little while I could have hidden.

      I started the car and lifted my head. I’d just slipped the gear into Drive when someone stepped in front of the bumper. The headlights made them look ghoulish, but even ghoulish, Mace was gorgeous.

      I put down the window and stuck my head out. “Get out of the way.”

      “Give us a minute, will you?” he asked. “We just want to talk to you.”

      Roxi appeared by the window. “Please, Lark. I can explain. It was my idea.”

      “Explain this.” I flipped her the bird. Then, to Mace, “Move, Ryan.”

      Roxi’s hand grabbed my shoulder. Her grip was tight, desperate. “Please.”

      I ignored her as I revved the engine, trying to scare Mace. He knew I wasn’t going to run him over, though. Jerk. The others stood there with him, clustered in the headlights with anxious expressions on their faces—not what I’d expect of people wanting to mess with me. And my sister was finally there, just on the edge where I could barely see her. I wasn’t in any danger from these people or she would have been full-on Amityville right now.

      Unless she was in on it.

      And that really was crazy. A genuine insane thought.

      I turned off the car and stepped out, holding the door open between me and them like a shield. “What’s going on?”

      Kevin had joined our group, too. He looked at me like I was something he’d just scraped off the bottom of his shoe. I didn’t even know the guy. What was his damage?

      Roxi stepped forward, hands held out in front of her, imploringly. “Lark, no one meant to hurt you tonight. I’m sorry if you feel like you’ve been ambushed.”

      I raised a brow. “You mean I haven’t been?”

      “I told you to be straight with her,” Ben growled. He was all frowny and serious, not quite so pretty, but even more hot. He turned to me. “We asked you here to talk to you.”

      I glanced at Roxi. “Not to be my friend, then.” Shouldn’t have said that. Made me sound whiny and pathetic.

      She looked like I’d slapped her. “I meant what I said.”

      I wanted to believe that, I really did.

      “This is stupid,” the darker guy—Gage—said. I remembered him from elementary school. His last name was Moreno. “You guys watch too much TV. She can’t help us, because there’s nothing going on.”

      Help them? With what?

      I turned my attention back to Ben, but my gaze caught on Sarah instead. “You should get that scratch looked at,” I told her. “It looks infected.”

      It was as though I was a hunter with a semiautomatic and they were a herd of deer. They all froze, staring at me.

      Sarah’s hand went to her face. “Really?”

      “Yeah. You should at least put a bandage on it. Some Neosporin.”

      Gage stepped forward, rolling up his sleeves. “What about me? Do I have scratches, too?”

      Long, jagged furrows ran the inside length of each of his forearms. They rose up in thick, scarlet welts that oozed wetly under the streetlights.

      I made a face. “What the hell have you been into?” I asked them, but I shouldn’t have asked. Hell, I shouldn’t have let them know I could even see them. I knew my mistake as soon as the light hit his arms in the right way, allowing me to see that tar-like tinge that clung to the wounds.

      “Oh, hell,” I whispered. “You pissed off a ghost.”

      No one else could see their scratches. Even they couldn’t see them, but I bet they could feel them. Some ghosts were nasty that way.

      “Oh, Lark,” Wren whispered. “This is bad.”

      “Did it get all of you?” I asked.

      “Not me,” Kevin said, but the rest nodded.

      I glanced at each of them. I didn’t want to get involved in this. But...shit. I couldn’t just walk away. They had no idea what they’d gotten into.

      Roxi shot a fierce look at Sarah. “I told you Ben was right. I told you something happened that night.”

      Sarah’s jaw was slack, her eyes wide. Her fingers were still pressed to the wound on her face. “It’s not possible,” she whispered. “Ghosts aren’t real.”

      “There’s one here right now,” Kevin informed her hotly. Huh. Mr. Sixth Sense all ready to snap to my sister’s defense. I liked him at that moment. A little.

      Gage shook his head. “This is so fucked up.”

      I turned to Ben. “How did you know?”

      He shrugged. “I felt it.”

      “You believe in this stuff?” Mace demanded. He looked from Kevin to Ben like he felt betrayed by them. “That’s just great.”

      “And you don’t?” I asked. “Come on, Mace. You’re smarter than that.”

      He glared at me. He blamed me, I think. He’d been living in perfect ignorance before being dragged into my world.

      Gage stood there, rubbing at his forearms. He looked scared and confused. “Ghosts are real?”

      For a second, there was silence. Then, I said, “Yes.” There went that promise I’d made to keep myself out of trouble. To keep my head down and not attract attention.

      “We have to help them,” Wren insisted.

      I glanced at her. “Can’t help them if they don’t want it,” I replied.

      Gage was watching me. “Who are you talking to?”

      I sighed. “My sister. She’s dead.”

      He paled a little. “Oh, shit. The stories about you are true?”

      Roxi patted him on the arm. “It’s okay.”

      Mace and Sarah exchanged glances, then looked at Gage, Roxi, Ben and Kevin. None of them wanted this to be true. In fact, I expected them to protest a little harder, but they weren’t stupid. They knew something was off.

      “Can you help us get rid of it?” Roxi asked, her hand over her stomach.

      “Yeah,” added Gage. “What do we do?”

      Okay, so they were ready to admit that something was wrong. That meant that they were open to believing in ghosts, and that for the first time in my life I was with people who just might believe me.

      I didn’t know everything about ghosts, but I knew more than they did. I knew more than most people did. And Wren knew way more than me. Still, she and I just sort of figured things out as we went along. We weren’t exactly experts.

      “We’re

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